GT ENERGY, an Irish company specialising in the extraction of hot water from deep below the earth’s surface, has appointed former Fine Gael minister Ivan Yates and former NTR chief operations officer Michael King as non-executive directors.

The deep geothermal energy company, one of the new wave of alternative energy companies in Ireland, is gearing up for a round of fundraising and has appointed NCB Corporate Finance as advisers.

GT Energy, which has drilled test wells in Newcastle, Co Dublin, is developing deep geothermal systems and heating plants, through which it intends to provide heat energy to urban areas through district heating networks.

The technology involves drilling a pair of boreholes to a depth of up to 4km (2.5miles) and pumping water through the hot rock at the base of the wells.

The hot water is then circulated through a district heating network where users extract heat through a heat exchanger. The key advantage is that it can supply heat at a constant rate that does not depend on the weather or any other variables.

Both geothermal and district heating schemes have been in existence for many years around the world. However, usage in Ireland and the UK is low to date.

The company is among those seeking to capitalise on the EU-wide target of 20 per cent of all energy consumed to be from renewable sources by 2020.